Methods

What are the Digital Humanities?

The digital humanities encompasses the use of computing and computing-related technologies as a primary methodological focus of research within fields like history, philosophy, literature, linguistics, art, archaeology, sociology, and cultural anthropology. Scholars engaging in such practices use computers as more than just tools; rather, they use computing to reimagine how they might interpret and/or share their research.

SIUE’s Lovejoy Library’s libguide detailing useful resource involved in defining, exploring, making, teaching, and researching within the field of DH.

Archiving

Learn how to create a repository of digital materials from inception to completion. This involves the process of digitization, learning how to describe the digital object, and developing and curating the archive’s website.

Resources

The Library of Congress Name Authority File (NAF) file provides authoritative data for names of persons, organizations, events, places, and titles. Its purpose is the identification of these entities and, through the use of such controlled vocabulary, to provide uniform access to bibliographic resources.

IRIS Center Technician Katie Knowles and web developer Ben Ostermeier conduct a workshop on using Omeka to create individual digital projects. They address the process of adding items to create collections and exhibitions with the software as well as customizing the presentation of digital collections. The second of four talks in the IRIS Brown Bag series on topics in the digital humanities.

With NSF Documenting Endangered Languages REU funding, students built this online digital exhibit and archive to document the context and history behind, and to share language data and team-related outputs connected to the 2015 earthquakes that severely affected Nepal.

This site maps transatlantic publication networks via the development of a digital edition of Susan Warner’s 1851 female Bildungsroman The Wide, Wide World.

Editing

Editing in the digital humanities is the use of software to develop and alter both text and code. It often involves analyzing and adapting texts that were not originally intended to exist as digital projects to make them more accessible and searchable for research.

Resources

The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) is a consortium which collectively develops and maintains a standard for the representation of texts in digital form. Its chief deliverable is a set of Guidelines which specify encoding methods for machine-readable texts, chiefly in the humanities, social sciences and linguistics.

Weka is a collection of machine learning algorithms for data mining tasks. The algorithms can either be applied directly to a dataset or called from your own Java code. It contains tools for data pre-processing, classification, regression, clustering, association rules, and visualization.

GIS and Spatial Analysis

Geographic Information Systems are software and other systems designed to manage, analyze, and present geographic data.

Readings

Resources

The historical map collection has more than 81,000 maps and images online. The collection includes rare 16th through 21st century maps of America, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific, Arctic, Antarctic, and the World.

A grant from the Federal government through its Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) has enabled the Illinois State Archives to digitize its 3,457 federal township plats of Illinois and present the images on this Web site.

The Illinois Natural Resources Geospatial Data Clearinghouse (Illinois Clearinghouse) is an established node of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Clearinghouse Network. Hosted by the Illinois State Geological Survey since July 1, 1997, the Illinois Clearinghouse has become the de facto starting point for the GIS and remote sensing user communities in Illinois.

MSDIS is responsible for data storage and access, standardization of both digital and tabular data, creation of the data dictionary, compilation of metadata, and statewide GIS user information networks.

This is a list of GIS data sources (including some geoportals) that provide information sets that can be used in geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial databases for purposes of geospatial analysis and cartographic mapping.

Projects

This NSF CAREER project, under the supervision of project director Kristine Hildebrandt, involves collaborative, multi-institutional field investigations of four indigenous languages of Manang, Nepal in order to merge traditional documentation methods with cutting-edge visualization tools to chart the rich language histories, variation, and attitudes found in Manang.

Networking

Networking analysis is the investigation of relationships and connections between people, objects, or ideas.

Using this tool you can visualize any text as a network. The resulting graph can be used to get a quick visual summary of the text, read the most relevant excerpts (by clicking on the nodes), and find similar texts.

A visualization grammar, a declarative format for creating, saving, and sharing interactive visualization designs. With Vega, you can describe the visual appearance and interactive behavior of a visualization in a JSON format, and generate views using HTML5 Canvas or SVG.

Web Development

Web development is a broad term for the work required to create a website. Given the popularity of the Internet and the ability to share digital scholarship around the world, web development skills are useful for digital projects that are hosted on the World Wide Web. These skills range from the basic ability to use platforms like WordPress to creating complex web applications.

Web developer Ben Ostermeier presents a brief overview on how the World Wide Web came to be and how it works today. He will also give a demonstration on creating webpages using HTML and CSS. The first of four talks in the IRIS Brown Bag series on topics in the digital humanities.